Techniques

January 15, 2009

In recent weeks, I found myself revisiting the Walton Concerto, both in teaching and my own practice. It has a special place in my repertoire: it was the first piece I learned after making the jump from being a violinist who also plays the viola, to a fully committed viola player.

From my background as a violinist, the first thing that struck me regarding this piece was how similar it is to Prokofiev's first violin concerto. In overall structure, in textures, in characters and even in the way the various themes and motives are built, the resemblance is so striking that it simply cannot be coincidence. Here is a very interesting article on the subject by Atar Arad. In it, Mr. Arad suggests that Walton hid his mischief of copying Prokofiev, by adding an even more direct quote from Hindemith's Kammermusik No. 5.

Besides this, what is helping me to forge a personal interpretation of this work is to look at other works of the composer. Much of Walton's music is theatrical and dramatic. That is of course the case of his oratorio Belshazzar's Feast, one of his most acclaimed and popular works. His film scores can also provide a great source of inspiration, for those who work well with images. First of all, there is this, from the movie "Battle of Britain". Then, the score of Lawrence Olivier's "Henry V". The Agincourt battle scenehas got something of the second movement.